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Game 50, Rangers at Mariners

The M’s have lost 8 in a row, including two sub-par starts from their ace. A long losing streak is, by its nature, deflating, but there’s a compounding effect when it’s paired with a struggling Felix. We don’t ask for much. I’d venture to say that at this point, we don’t need watchable games every time out; we know the risks of sitting down to watch an Aaron Harang start. But games like yesterday’s upset the bargain that I’ve briefly described/just made up, and it makes feeling confident about today’s game, or about Michael Saunders, or about 2014, or feeling anything, that much harder.

Hisashi Iwakuma will try to bounce back from his worst start of the year, and Nick Tepesch tries to put a finger injury behind him and continue his subtly effective rookie season.

Tepesch gets a lot of grounders despite throwing a fair number of straight four-seam FBs because he gets so many grounders off of his primary breaking ball, the cutter. He mixes in a sinker, a curve and the occasional change, but he’s been effective this year in large part because of that cutter. Just as many GBs as his sinker, but a ton more whiffs. It’s helped him bump his K% up over 16%, so he’s not a Derek Lowe clone. He’s had some HR troubles, particularly against lefties, but he doesn’t seem like someone who’ll run high platoon splits consistently.

Smoak’s oblique injury keeps him out of the line-up today, but it’s apparently not as serious as they thought last night.

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Comments

62 Responses to “Game 50, Rangers at Mariners”

msfanmike on
May 26th, 2013 6:05 pm

Good rant, though. Well stated.

stevemotivateir on
May 26th, 2013 6:08 pm

Thanks, Mike! Limited alcohol consumption while writing that as well;)

evolvingcaveman on
May 26th, 2013 6:10 pm

Our off-season acquisitions really aren’t the problem in my honest opinion. Sure we would have loved more/better but Morse,Kendrys,Ibanez,Bay and Shoppach are kicking the living crap out of holdovers Ackley, Montero,Ryan, Smoak etc. How many holdovers from our Organization besides Seager have been better than the new guys? The vets are playing almost exactly how I expected and the young guys have to step up if we want to win.

californiamariner on
May 26th, 2013 6:49 pm

Performing better than Ackley, Montero, Ryan, and Smoak isn’t exactly an accomplishment. How about the pitchers #3-5? How are guys like Swisher and Bourn doing?
Oh and Morse has a negative war. This past offseason is a huge problem. I think it’s the reason most people are ready for new management.

stevemotivateir on
May 26th, 2013 8:09 pm

@caveman

If there was a surplus of outfield talent within the organization, and if Jaso had sucked last year, it would be a different story.

Most of these stop-gaps have played decent. But they’re not long term options, and without upcoming replacements, they’re not even really stop-gaps. So I do think this offseason was a failure. We’ll be going through the same thing again next offseason, but with less (good) FA options available, and arguably a higher price for trade candidates.

The infield’s another story, as there are other inner-organizational options. I won’t get into pitching.

The_Waco_Kid on
May 26th, 2013 11:47 pm

A win!

jak924 on
May 27th, 2013 7:52 am

Ackley will never go to AAA as long as Z is the GM. Ackley to AAA is the final nail.

nvn8vbryce on
May 27th, 2013 8:34 am

Any compelling reasons for me to drive into Reno and see Tacoma play today?

stevemotivateir on
May 27th, 2013 8:40 am

@jak924

Divish is reporting that Franklin is getting the call. If that’s true, it’s very likely Ackley’s going down.

If this is the case, how do you like your crow?!

G-Man on
May 27th, 2013 8:54 am

stevem, I heard the same, but can’t find it on the TNT site. Was it a tweet??